Ending the terms of Poland’s current Constitutional Tribunal judges and choosing a new bench for staggered terms is the proposal announced by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on 5 November. The leader of the Polish People’s Party (PSL) said a draft constitutional amendment had been prepared. The plan remains a political proposal, not an adopted law.
Kosiniak-Kamysz, who is also deputy prime minister and defence minister, outlined the idea at the Polish Local Government Congress. According to Polsat News and RMF24, he described it as an “extraordinary renewal of the Constitutional Tribunal’s membership”. His stated aim is to ease the dispute surrounding the tribunal, rather than declare one side the winner.
A new bench with three-, five- and nine-year terms
RMF24 reports that the proposal would add a constitutional provision allowing the current judges’ terms to be ended and a new bench appointed. In remarks quoted by Polsat News, Kosiniak-Kamysz said the replacement judges would be selected in a one-off process for terms of three, five and nine years.
After that one-off renewal, appointments would return to the procedure currently set out in the constitution. Kosiniak-Kamysz also left open the possibility of another arrangement if it could secure the necessary majority, so this part of the proposal was not presented as a final model.
A role for the judicial council, president and parliament
Under the mechanism outlined by the PSL leader, the National Council of the Judiciary, known in Poland as the KRS, would ask the National Assembly — the lower and upper houses of parliament sitting together — to initiate the renewal of the tribunal’s membership. Polsat News also reports that candidates would be nominated by the Speaker of the Sejm, the lower house, after receiving the president’s approval. A vote in the National Assembly would require a three-fifths majority.
These are details announced in the politician’s speech. The reports from the congress do not contain the full text of the proposed amendment, so the account should not be treated as a complete legal procedure.
Kosiniak-Kamysz called on political parties to sign the proposal and spoke of the need to collect 92 signatures. That appeal does not in itself establish that an amendment has been formally introduced or that it has the support required to change the constitution. At this stage, PSL has outlined a political proposal; ending the dispute over the tribunal remains its author’s stated ambition, not an established outcome of the reform.
